Chronicles of the Pervy Sage
by TheEphemeralDream
Summary: The chronicles of our favourite perverted Sannin, starting from his graduation from the Academy. Will contain stories of Team Hiruzen, the Second Shinobi World War, the battle that gave them the title of Legendary Sannin, and the falling-out of the three teammates. Some inconsistencies, but not an AU. An epic-style work documenting Jiraiya's entire life!
1. A Test of Teamwork

**A/N: Hi guys, Jennifer here! This is a new fic I suddenly had inspiration to write, and it will be a detailed account of our favourite perverted Sannin's entire life, epic-style. I know, it's a pretty big task to undertake, but I'm planning for this to be a big undertaking. It will probably take me a year at least, but I'm hoping to make it worth it!**

**I got this inspiration from the story ****_The Girl From Whirlpool_****, by SilverShine, which is an account of Minato's life. I was so impressed and enthralled and simply ****_dumbstruck_**** by the level of writing (as well as the sheer freaking number of words!) in that story, and I decided to take on the challenge of doing to same for one of my favourite, older (and ****_very_**** sadly, deceased) characters. So, enough small talk, and onto the tale! Hope you enjoy, and please ****_review, follow, and favourite_****. *hugs***

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It was one of those days in Konoha during which the sun shone down brightly and ruthlessly upon the villagers, not caring if they were fully-dressed in ninja garb and waiting for one of the biggest moments of their lives to occur.

That year's graduating class stood outside the Academy in the sweltering heat, grouped off in their teams and waiting for their new jounin senseis to arrive.

Jiraiya was one of these students. He stood, fidgeting with his hands and scratching his puffy white hair (which really could be quite itchy sometimes), next to his newly-appointed teammates, a boy named Orochimaru and a girl named Tsunade. He wasn't particularly pleased to have been placed with two of the top students in the class, especially seeing as this girl was totally and completely flat-chested. Sure, she had a pretty face and nice blond hair, but she _didn't_ have boobs. Not at all.

"When are they coming?" Jiraiya complained loudly. Some of the other newly-appointed genin shot him dirty looks – but that was just because they were on their best behaviour for these supposedly-great jounin leaders. Jiraiya had never been short of friends.

"Very soon," was the only reply he got from their strict teacher, Sayuri-sensei.

He huffed impatiently, and his annoyance only grew when Tsunade smirked at him. Why did he have to be on a team with _her_? Why couldn't it have been Misaki-chan? She was kind and considerate and had _huge_ boobs. One the other hand, Tsunade was bad-tempered and stuck-up, and all the adults called her Tsunade-_hime_, just because she was related to some old guy. All right, sure, he was the First Hokage, blah, blah. _He_ didn't see anything special about this blond girl. Now, Misaki on the other hand…

He stared in Misaki's direction conspicuously, until Tsunade noticed and punched him in the gut. He grimaced; her punches were not to be underestimated.

"Stop being such an idiot!" the tall blond girl barked, messy ponytail swinging. "The jounins are gonna arrive any second now." She made a face at him. "I don't want to look bad beside _you_."

Grumbling and rubbing his stomach, he looked up. Sure enough, the jounin had just arrived. There were five of them, for the fifteen graduates this year, and he couldn't imagine a group of five people who were any more different than the ones before him. There were four men and one woman, and they were all different shapes and sizes – and _oh_, that woman had a _nice_ body! He suddenly felt quite hot, and he was sure it wasn't _just_ from the sweltering heat.

"First is Team Takeru, which will consist of Shigeru, Tadashi, and Kazuko," Sayuri-sensei announced, deft fingers tapping a pen on the clipboard. Jiraiya scowled at Tadashi, the Uchiha boy he despised, but the Uchiha merely ignored him. "Second is Team Amaya, which will consist of Ren, Misaki, and Susumu." Jiraiya groaned quietly and slowly edged away from Tsunade as Misaki's team walked toward the female jounin. Why couldn't that have been _his_ sensei? "Third will be Team Hiruzen, consisting of Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya."

He looked at the line of the three remaining jounin eagerly, expecting that cool-looking jounin with short cropped red hair to step forward and beam at them...

…but it was only that weathered-looking man with a funny goatee that stepped forward.

The three of them walked up to the jounin, Jiraiya in the lead. The man – Hiruzen? – smiled at them before leading them a little ways off. Jiraiya wrinkled his nose. This sensei smelled funny.

"It's sure nice to finally meet you kids," he said with a big smile. Neither Jiraiya nor Orochimaru said anything, but Tsunade stepped forward, smiling.

"It's so nice to meet you too, Hiruzen-sensei! I'm Tsunade," she said brightly, giving her best smile. Jiraiya scoffed – what a suck-up this girl was! Tsunade shot him a glare that probably would have made him drop dead if he hadn't seen it at least twenty times in the last three days they'd known they were going to be on the same team.

"Tsunade, is it? What a beautiful name."

Tsunade practically glowed, while Jiraiya felt his jaw almost drop to the ground. Was it just him, or was there a slightly perverted glint in that guy's eye!

"Why don't the rest of you introduce yourselves?"

"I'm Jiraiya," he said quickly, still in a bit of shock. Maybe he and this sensei would get along … or they'd just have a bitter rivalry. After all, there _were_ only so many beautiful women in Konoha, and once the most beautiful of them started shying away from the bathhouses … well, there would just be one more unhappy white-haired boy out there.

"Orochimaru," said the pale boy. He'd been at the top of the class, but he was a quiet sort of fellow, reserved and rather cold. He was _extremely _pale and had long dark hair that made him look like a girl from behind. He was shorter than Jiraiya, too. He'd had always thought Orochimaru was quite queer, but strangely quite a few girls actually liked him – _liked _liked. Maybe they were into girls … now, that wasn't a bad thought at all!

Their sensei nodded at their introductions, seeming to rest his gaze a little longer on Orochimaru than Jiraiya – probably because he looked more like a girl – before he said, "Well, let's get going so we can do our first training exercise today."

"Training?" Jiraiya echoed incredulously. _Already?_

"Well, we can get to know each other first on the way, if that's what you'd like." Hiruzen made it sound like his offer was extremely generous. Jiraiya very intelligently kept his mouth shut. "So tell me about yourselves. What are your goals in life?"

"I want to become the greatest and most beautiful kunoichi in Konoha," Tsunade piped up, not missing a beat and walking alongside their sensei while the two boys trailed a step behind. Personally Jiraiya didn't think this would be too difficult, seeing how insanely strong and ruthless she was already, but he didn't like to compliment people who glared at him every day. But as for the second part of her goal, he didn't think beauty really suited her…

"I'm sure you will be, young lady!"

This time, Tsunade really _did_ glow. Jiraiya coughed a bit too conspicuously, and Hiruzen-sensei turned to him. "What about you, Jiraiya-kun?" he asked with a wide smile.

What a creepy guy. "I want to write a book when I get older," he said stoutly.

"Oho," said Hiruzen, eyebrows raised. "A unique goal for a shinobi."

Tsunade scoffed. "What _kind_ of book – you should tell him that!" But Jiraiya merely made a face at her and their sensei hastily prompted Orochimaru to speak.

"I want to help eliminate the cruelty of the world," the boy said quietly, and suddenly Jiraiya felt a little bout of embarrassment at his answer. It seemed a bit too light-hearted and selfish now…

But that embarrassment soon dissipated like mist as they passed by a very familiar street. The street that was populated by women's bathhouses. Jiraiya itched to crouch down by that hole he knew was in the fence, the one that gave the best view, but Tsunade's steely gaze was on him, and so he clamped down on these urges as hard as he could. He knew that if he did anything like peep on bathing women in front of Tsunade, she would explode in anger and take it out on him. Though he might be slightly below average in intelligence – according to his teachers – he wasn't stupid enough to purposely aggravate Tsunade. She was the worst-tempered girl he'd ever met.

Strangely enough, he felt some strange tension rolling off their sensei. He glanced around to see if his teammates had noticed, but Tsunade was too busy glaring at him and Orochimaru had that impassive expression he always wore on that unnaturally white face. He turned back to their sensei, noticing the way his eyes crept towards that peephole closer to the bushes… Maybe that was just a trick of the light, because no respectable jounin would do something like that.

And speaking of respectable jounins… Jiraiya suddenly got the feeling that he'd heard his sensei's name somewhere before. He frowned, but couldn't seem to remember where he'd heard it.

They reached a training ground after a relatively uneventful half hour (unless you counted the little spat Tsunade and Jiraiya had after she saw him ogling a rather well-endowed woman) and by this time Jiraiya was quite bored. Their sensei had barely talked, asking only occasional boring questions, though he did happen to strike up a small conversation with Orochimaru while Tsunade and Jiraiya were bickering.

The first thing he noticed was that the training ground had three wooden posts sticking out of it. All three were scratched and dented, and had countless kunai marks and shuriken-inflicted indentations. Also, there were two small boxes on the two side posts and a small black alarm clock on the middle post.

"This is Training Ground Three," Hiruzen said as he surveyed the grounds before them. Jiraiya squinted up at the old man. Now that they were under the glaring sun, he noticed a bit of a sunspot forming on his right cheek and suppressed a laugh. _Old fart. _"I trained here with my team when I was a genin. There's land, forest, and water, which makes it ideal for our purposes. You kids better appreciate that I got up at five this morning to book this for us for the entire year!" He paused for an enthusiastic response, clearing his throat awkwardly upon meeting silence. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a pipe and quickly began to smoke, much to Jiraiya's surprise. It wasn't as if smoking wasn't common amongst ordinary citizens, but it was extremely rare for shinobi. Firstly, the health problems that came with it were considerable if one was a shinobi. And secondly, the smell was unpleasant, and it was something that could draw an enemy's attention to you during a critical battle. Even _he_ knew that.

"Sensei, that's not good for you!" Tsunade piped up suddenly, echoing what Jiraiya had been thinking.

Hiruzen-sensei merely blew a smoke ring and laughed. "Be more light-hearted! It's my wife who tells me not to smoke, not you kids."

Tsunade blushed, and Jiraiya wasn't sure if it was because she'd been reprimanded by a teacher or because she'd been compared to the teacher's wife. He sighed forlornly. If only she was that meek and cheerful around the rest of them. Though admittedly, she had started becoming angrier more often towards him only after he'd called her flat-chested.

"Now, the training exercise today is simple. I'm going to be testing you by seeing how advanced your techniques are. I've heard a bit about you three." He reached into his pocket and pulled out something wrapped up in tissue. Eagerly, Jiraiya leaned closer– was it some special weapon? Chakra pills so their sensei could see how awesome their powers could be in an enhanced state? An exciting plethora of ideas and possibilities scuttled through Jiraiya's mind as Hiruzen unwrapped the object with his one free hand (the other occupied with the pipe) … but it turned out to be two bells. Hiruzen held them up by a string made a small knot, effectively tying it to his pants.

"That's not a very firm knot, sensei," Tsunade observed, seeming to want to prove herself.

"Ah, well-noticed, Tsunade." She beamed. "But that's exactly why I chose it. You see, the three of you are going to be trying to take these bells from me before lunchtime." Hiruzen moved slightly and the bells rang loud and clear. Jiraiya smirked. This was going to be easy – this guy couldn't even move without making sound, so how was he going to hide!

"Do we have to take both or something? Why do you have two?" he asked.

Hiruzen smiled suddenly, and it wasn't exactly a kind smile. It was a conniving smile, one that made it obvious there was a trick to the training.

There was silence, and Jiraiya supposed that he was keeping quiet to build suspense.

Then, "You're already pitting us against each other." Both Jiraiya and Tsunade turned at the sound of this voice, surprised that their quiet teammate had finally spoken up. Orochimaru's face was unreadable, but Hiruzen's smile only grew wider.

"I didn't say that," he said airily, dismissively. "But remember, there's a time limit for this, and the one who doesn't get a bell – if there's only one of you, that is – doesn't get lunch."

Ah, so that's what the boxes on the posts were. No lunch? Jiraiya almost groaned. He _needed_ lunch … and breakfast and dinner and two snacks a day. He _was _a growing boy at the age of ten after all.

"Anyway, I want you guys to give it your best, and give everything you have. Don't hold back – trust me when I say I can take care of myself. Now, are you ready?" Two voices murmured assent. Orochimaru merely nodded. "Three. Two. One. _Start_!."

One second his teammates were beside him, and the next they were gone, abandoning to face his sensei one-on-one. He gaped at their sudden disappearance, surprised at how quick and synchronised they had been, almost as though they'd planned it in advance. Of course he knew that the basic rule by which shinobi had to abide was to stay hidden and strike when the moment was right, but he didn't think his teammates would flee so suddenly!

_Cowards,_ he thought furiously. Fine. He'd just take this old fart on alone. He could do that.

"Aren't you a bit out of place?" the old fart called.

Jiraiya scowled at him. "I'll face you head-on! No problem!"

Hiruzen merely chuckled and blew another smoke ring. He hadn't even moved yet.

Jiraiya sprinted up to him, throwing punches at his gut, but his sensei just dodged all his attacks. Leaning to his left, he brought his foot up to strike at the other man's head, but his foot was suddenly caught in a hand and with a sudden twist, he fell heavily to the ground.

There was a muffled _thump_, but within seconds Jiraiya was back up,\ and he'd created a Shadow Clone, something that he personally was quite impressed with. Both he and his clone attacked Hiruzen from different sides, striking at the fastest speeds he could muster – but like before, none of the hits came into contact with the older man until Hiruzen grabbed both their wrists and tossed them as if they weighed nothing, his pipe still in his mouth.

Jiraiya felt his clone disappear in mid-air before he fell, quite alone, into the water, making an enormous splash. Luckily for him, the water wasn't very deep. He breathed a sigh of relief, because if it had been, he would be drowning. He couldn't swim.

"You'll have to do better than that, Jiraiya-kun!" Hiruzen called a hint of a chuckle underlying his words. But Jiraiya only smiled. He had another trick up his sleeve if it would be necessary, but he wanted to wait and see how far he could get without it. The old fart was fast, but could he dodge the unexpected?

But he had to have a plan. He had to call upon his brainpower.

He groaned loudly, pulling himself underwater, feigning defeat. But then in a flash, he pulled out three shuriken from his pouch and pitched them. Then, without missing a beat, he jumped out of the water, brandishing a kunai in his right hand.

He screamed a loud battle cry, completely unfazed when Hiruzen dodged all three shuriken with apparent ease, and swiped the kunai at Hiruzen's face while simultaneously aiming a kick at the old geezer's knees.

But instead of making contact, he felt both his foot at his wrist being grabbed.

The kunai fell from his hand, and Hiruzen released his wrist, holding him off the ground upside-down by one ankle. "You should learn to understand subtlety," the older man chuckled as Jiraiya could only stare at his shins, but Jiraiya knew his sensei had made a grave mistake.

He'd released both of Jiraiya's hands.

Jiraiya grinned, clasping his hands together into the snake seal, and suddenly his puffy white hair began to elongate, quicker and quicker until it shot out and grabbed his sensei's leg.

"Gotcha!" he cried exuberantly as his sensei released his ankle in surprise, and he stumbled before finding the ground with his feet. He focussed his chakra tighter, and strands of his hair suddenly became hardened spikes, and he reached forward to grab the bells –

"Too slow," came an amused voice, before –

_Poof!_

Suddenly his sensei disappeared in a puff of smoke and Jiraiya was leaning forward, completely unbalanced. With a shout, he only managed to right himself quickly enough to prevent a dangerous fall onto his own spiked hair.

_Shit. _That had been a Shadow Clone all along? And he'd wasted his trump card on that plan, no less! Nobody had seen him use that jutsu – he hadn't even shown it off to Misaki! Now his sensei had seen it, and he probably didn't even have the element of surprise that he'd just relied on.

He cursed as he whirled around, but he couldn't see his sensei anywhere. His jutsu was dissipating, the hair retracting into his usual furry mop, because he wasn't yet able to hold the technique for long. If his opponent had been the real thing, those spikes in his hair would have lodged deep into the flesh of the leg and he would have had more than enough time to snag those bells away before his sensei had any idea what he was doing.

As it was, he was sopping wet and was quite without the bells. He grumbled to himself – frustrated because this was the time when he usually had his first snack. _Ugh._ His stomach rumbled, and he shook the water out of his hair like the half-drowned dog he was.

"That was a pretty cool jutsu." Jiraiya whirled around to see Orochimaru approaching him somewhat warily. "I've never seen anything like it."

Jiraiya had always been a sucker for compliments. He grinned, scratching the back of his head in slight embarrassment. "Yeah," he admitted, "it _is_ pretty cool, isn't it?"

The quiet boy seemed like he was about to say something else, but then a voice came from behind them.

"A good shinobi does not reveal here he is, even if the enemy seems to have disappeared," said Hiruzen, who had appeared a mere couple feet behind them. Jiraiya immediately adopted into a fighting stance, thinking that maybe the two of them could take their sensei on together, but Orochimaru merely looked frightened. Jiraiya scoffed. He hadn't expected their sensei to turn up either, but seriously, this boy had no courage!

Suddenly, something – no, _two_ something's – jumped out of the bushes and latched onto Hiruzen. With a start, Jiraiya realized it was Tsunade and Orochimaru, the figure beside him having suddenly vanished with a puff of smoke. It had all been a ploy to lure their sensei out!

"Nice trick!" their sensei called encouragingly, seeming unperturbed by the two small figures climbing over him, hands snatching at the bells at his waist. Evidently he had a reason for his apparent disregard, because the older man's hands suddenly grabbed Jiraiya's teammates' wrists and flung them at Jiraiya, who could only form a half-shout before they tumbled into a big pile of flailing limbs. "But just so you know, Orochimaru-kun, that genjutsu your clone tried to put on me was much too weak. You'll have to try harder with a jounin!"

A snarl erupted from beside Jiraiya, and he turned just in time to see Tsunade punch the ground with surprising ferocity. Jiraiya didn't think it was a very intelligent idea to punch rock-hard slabs of stone in this sort of situation, but a little gasp came from his other side, so he followed Orochimaru's lead in leaping away.

It was a good thing he had done so without hesitation, because the next second the ground within a radius of three meters crumbled, and their sensei barely had time to find flat ground from which to push off.

"Impressive," the older man called, and he actually seemed slightly shocked. Jiraiya was beyond shocked himself – he knew this girl had massive strength almost rivalling his own, but he didn't know it was _this _strong! He began to develop a slight fear of this blond tomboy.

Their sensei was perched on the branch of a tree across from the two boys as he surveyed the damage the grinning girl had caused. "You have excellent chakra control."

She had used chakra to do that? When did she learn to do _that_?

The branch on which Orochimaru was perched suddenly trembled, and Jiraiya watched as the boy shot forth, throwing two kunai with deadly accuracy. And he continued to watch in horror as they struck their sensei right in the head. A cry of surprise came from Tsunade and Jiraiya was so shocked that he couldn't even utter a sound as blood spurted from where the kunai had hit. He snuck a peek at the other boy, whose face was terrifyingly impassive as he watched the gruesome scene.

_Poof!_

And then the sound of two kunai hitting a block of wood. The log fell to the ground with a thump, and suddenly their sensei had his hands on top of the heads of both Orochimaru and Tsunade.

Just then, a shrill beeping seemed to go off for a few seconds.

"Lunchtime," Hiruzen said cheerfully.

"It can't be lunchtime already!" Jiraiya accused. He knew the time of day by the noises his stomach made.

"Well, this exercise is over for now – I've seen all I need to see."

"But we didn't get any bells," Tsunade said sullenly. Jiraiya hopped down from his branch and walked towards his teammates with a defeated air. He was getting hungrier by the second.

Hiruzen laughed and gestured for them to follow him as he walked back to the grassy patch that had the three posts. "I feel a bit generous today, so I'll give the two better shinobi lunch. Orochimaru-kun, Tsunade-chan, you can have lunch." Jiraiya uttered a cry of dismay and injustice. How were _they_ better than him? He was totally on par with their level! "Meanwhile, Jiraiya-kun – you _don't_ get lunch." Jiraiya glared at him, furious, and in a sudden bout of mutiny, he rushed forth to grab a lunchbox – screw that old fart! He needed his food, _now_!

A hand grabbed his collar, pulling him back. "We'll have none of that now," his sensei said firmly. "In fact, to make sure you don't cheat and eat some of the food, I'm going to tie you to this post."

Jiraiya spluttered in anger and indignation as his sensei pulled out a wad of rope, grinning as he began to tie the young boy to the post. He looked to his teammates for help, but Orochimaru was expressionless as usual Tsunade only smirked and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Now, Team Hiruzen," their sensei said somewhat smugly, "I'll give you another chance to prove yourselves as a team after lunch, and make sure that chance counts because I'll have two servings of ice cream for you later on! I have a couple errands to run, so I'll be back in about half an hour. Tsunade, Orochimaru, don't give Jiraiya any food, regardless of how loudly he whines, all right?"

Tsunade nodded with an evil expression on her face, shooting superior looks at an irate Jiraiya. Orochimaru didn't say anything as their sensei disappeared.

Jiraiya's two teammates opened their lunches and his stomach growled loudly at the smell of pork and steamed rice. Even the vegetables seemed appetizing now, and he usually wasn't a fan of vegetables _at all…_

"Ahh," Tsunade said loudly and deliberately, "this _sure does_ smell good!" She grinned at Jiraiya before slowly snapping the wooden chopsticks apart and eating a large chunk of pork. He growled at her but it wasn't very intimidating, seeing as he was tied to a wooden post.

"We need to come up with a strategy for after lunch," Orochimaru's quiet voice interrupted. "It's best if Jiraiya joins in this time as well."

"Hey!" the boy in question blurted out indignantly. "You guys just ran off so suddenly – how was I supposed to know what the plan was?"

"A shinobi is supposed to _hide_ and strike when the time is right, idiot," Tsunade said. "What were you doing, just standing out there in the open?" She snorted, and not very elegantly at that.

Jiraiya wasn't about to admit that the concept had escaped him. "I wasn't being a coward, that's what, unlike the two of _you_," he retorted angrily. "And then you two just snuck off and used me as bait! I can't believe you'd do that to me! I'm your teammate, for god's sake!"

Even Tsunade looked somewhat embarrassed at this point, and Jiraiya was savagely pleased by this fact. It was pretty difficult to get that snobby girl embarrassed. Orochimaru's eyes were downcast.

"Sorry, Jiraiya," the other boy said quietly. "We probably shouldn't have done that."

"Yeah … but you were just going to be deadweight!" Tsunade defended. Jiraiya glared at her as best he could while tied to a post.

"Whatever," he said angrily, but something inside him had broken. Wasn't good enough for them, was he now? Jiraiya wasn't one usually prone to crying, but at that moment he was really quite upset. What happened to 'That was a pretty cool jutsu?' and 'I've never seen anything like it'?

Suddenly, mouth-watering food was put right under his nose by a skinny, blinding-white arm.

"Ah!" he cried as his stomach grumbled even more loudly. It was turning in on itself, he could feel it. All that would be left of him in a couple of hours would be a little stomach, completely empty! "Now _you're_ trying to torture me too?"

"Eat some," said the quiet boy. "You'll need the energy for this afternoon."

On his other side, Tsunade looked a bit shocked too, but she seemed to trust the pale boy much more than she seemed to trust Jiraiya. She merely scoffed, "He's probably right. You'd just be even more deadweight if you're hungry … not that you could get much worse." She held out her lunchbox too, albeit somewhat reluctantly

Jiraiya was too surprised to glare. Plus, his stomach was growling too loudly to really hear the girl's words properly so he'd give her the benefit of the doubt. "But … sensei said not to give me anything."

"Psh," she said dismissively, "what does he know? He's away now anyway, so you should probably just eat. What's the worst he could do anyways? Send us back to the Academy?" She laughed.

The food was making it hard for him to think, and by then his grumbling stomach had already whole-heartedly agreed to this plan. He'd eat, and then … well, they'd get to that later, but first he'd eat!

But… "I can't," he said. "My hands are tied." And he wriggled his fingers to demonstrate.

A piece of pork was suddenly shoved against his lips and he munched down on it gratefully before realizing it was Orochimaru who was feeding him. He recoiled a little in disgust – even Tsunade feeding him would be better than this! This was just … just … gay!

But then again who was he to refuse food?

_Boom!_

Suddenly, the skies turned dark and their sensei stood before them, looking absolutely and completely furious. His face was contorted with rage as he stepped towards them, a thunderclap sounding with each footstep. Strangely enough, Jiraiya's hunger was suddenly forgotten. He had never been _less_ hungry.

"_HOW DARE YOU DEFY MY ORDERS,_" their sensei boomed, making all three of them cringe. "_YOU INSOLENT, STUPID YOUNGSTERS._"

"We – We were only helping him out a bit!" Tsunade cried out fearfully. "How were we supposed to work together _as a team_ if one of us was starving?"

And for the first time, Jiraiya felt a bubble of gratitude for this girl. And a little bit of admiration – she'd stood up to this sensei who none of them were able to defeat. And also a bit of pity, because their sensei looked like he was about to kill her – in their profession, that probably wasn't a good thing to joke about…

"_You dare … you dare talk back to me?_" he roared. Tsunade whimpered. "_Well in that case…_"

Jiraiya squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the final blow to come, the final blow that would wipe all three of them out and off the face of the world. Why did it have to end like this? He still had so many goals, aspirations … he still had to get to feel up Misaki-chan, for god's sake!

"I commend you."

Jiraiya cringed harder against the post before he realized what he'd just heard. _I commend you?_ What? His eyes peeked open, just a little, to see that the skies had suddenly cleared into that horrible bright cloudless blue again, and their sensei had an amused expression on his regular cheerful countenance. He didn't look _remotely_ angry.

"What?" he blurted out, and this two fellow teammates on either side were staring in equal incredulity.

"I said," the older man smiled, "I commend you for talking back to me. It's not often a young lady can do that without restraint." He sighed. "Though I _am_ getting quite a lot of that from a woman who's much too old." Was he talking about his wife and comparing Tsunade to her again?

"But what about disobeying your orders?" Tsunade demanded.

"Well," Hiruzen said slowly, as if musing over the question. "On a battlefield, you'll often get instructions from your commanders and such, but a lot of the time, you may need to think up your own strategy, something that a commander can't instruct you to do. In that case, you've got to rely on your own wits … and those of your teammates."

"You were testing our teamwork skills," said Orochimaru. It was more a statement than a question.

"Yes," their sensei said, smiling. "This was a teamwork test that was used on me when I first became a genin." He paused and seemed to get a bit lost in memories.

"All of this was to test our _teamwork_?!" Jiraiya shouted, unable to contain himself. His feet lifted off the ground and he struggled furiously. "All this crap with only two bells and not getting lunch and _starving me_, was all about _teamwork?!_ This is the stupidest test I've ever taken!"

Hiruzen didn't look insulted, but it was Tsunade who elbowed him. "Watch your language, idiot!"

"No, no, don't worry, dear," he said to Tsunade, laughing. "It's totally up to him what to think of my tests. But … if you think the test is stupid, then I suppose you'll think the reward is, too." Jiraiya's eyes widened. _Oh yeah, he'd promised us ice cream!_ "So, Tsunade, Orochimaru, why don't you two come along and I'll treat you to ice cream at the new place that's opening up? Ichiro's, it's called. Jiraiya-kun can just stay here."

Jiraiya began to protest, but their sensei seemed to be oblivious to everything Jiraiya was saying and taking back as he led the other two genin away. Tsunade smirked at him for the umpteenth time that day, and even Orochimaru seemed attempt a smile.

They were almost so far away now that Jiraiya doubted they could even hear him anymore.

"At least untie me!" he shouted. "I can't get out of here!" He struggled harder against the restraints, but to no avail. "Help me! Someone! What happened to teamwork? We're supposed to be a team! Tsunade! Orochimaru!"

_That's it,_ he seethed furiously, _when I become a jounin, and if I ever decide to become a teacher, I swear I'll _never_, _ever_, use this stupid, stupid, _stupid_ test!_

* * *

**So what did you think of this first little chapter? ^_^ Good? Bad? Either way, I'm super excited to be posting this now, and I hope you'll all enjoy it as it progresses. If any of you are reading my OC fic ****_The Remnants of the Sky_****, I want to tell you outright that this will ****_definitely_**** not be updated daily, mostly because I'll be having chapters that are quite long. This one, as far as I can see now, is one that's actually quite short actually, and some chapters can even turn out to be twice as long as this. **

**So I guess the only way to keep up with it is to ****_follow_****! Also, please ****_review_**** and ****_favourite_****, if you really like it. :) Thanks for reading this first chapter!**

**-Jennifer *hugs***

**P.S. A million thanks to IncessantOblivion for edits! Her writing is another inspiration for me – they taught me (at least a little bit) how to write humour. Amazing writer! 3**


	2. A Test of Nerves

**A/N: Hey guys, so here's the second chapter. Well, I realize I rushed into writing and posting this chapter a little too early and without enough research (teehee), but you know what, I'm not changing it. Yes, I know that Team Hiruzen was formed when they were all six years old, but personally I find it a bit hard to imagine. So, yup, they're ten, and they graduated from the Academy. Deal with it. I'm following most of the basic story though, and you'll definitely see things you remember from the anime and/or manga, such has their fight with Hanzo, Dan and Nawaki, etc. I wouldn't go so far to call it an AU, because most of it is definitely in the original series, but there will be some tweaks. Due to the shocking number of things that aren't described clearly, I'm taking quite a lot of creative licence here (e.g. Hiruzen's personality [although his lewd nature is quite true], Jiraiya's family). Anyhow, hope you enjoy this _loooong _second chapter!**

**Update: Crap. And after doing a bit more research, I realize Hiruzen should already be Hokage. However, let's pretend otherwise. _Just. Go. Along. With. It. _Don't worry, I fully intend to make it pull together in the end. It's just … not the same as the actual :P _I still refuse to call it an AU!_**

::~::

"Faster! You've got to pick up your speed, kids! This is no time to be gentle!"

Jiraiya gritted his teeth and dunked the paintbrush back into the can of disgustingly-coloured brown paint, not caring that droplets splattered over the cement beneath his feet. Hiruzen-sensei was sitting on a recliner, smoking his pipe as usual, while his three students painted the fence with inhuman speed and hellish indignation.

"Work those paintbrushes!" their sensei called, his amusement barely concealed.

"This isn't a job for a ninja!" Jiraiya exploded, stabbing the paintbrush against the fence, creating a huge splotch he knew he would have to fix later. But at present, he was so beyond annoyed that he didn't give a damn. Tsunade looked equally irate, but she kept her mouth shut and kept painting. Orochimaru was expressionless as usual, though Jiraiya thought he could see a slight crease on that pale brow – the biggest show of emotion he'd ever seen from his teammate.

"Jiraiya-kun," said his sensei in a rather dangerous tone. Jiraiya froze, fearing the worst, but his sensei went on, "All of us know what it's like to be a genin. Right now you've just got to keep at it and bring your record up. Then we'll get assigned better missions."

Jiraiya fought the urge to grumble. This wasn't the first time Hiruzen had said something like this to him, and it certainly wasn't their first time doing a mundane mission like this. If his sums were been correct, this was their nineteenth, stupid, boring, useless D-rank mission. If people wanted their fences painted, they should hire fence-painters, not shinobi!

"Look Jiraiya," Hiruzen said in a placating tone, "I know you're eager to get out there and help save the world, but really what we really need to do now is to build up our world again. It's been just over a decade since the armistice, and we're still all in vulnerable positions. Painting this fence," he pointed at the object Jiraiya had come to hate, "is important because it surrounds the orphanage that will be built here. Even now, orphans are coming in hordes."

Jiraiya noticed a small movement from Orochimaru out of the corner of his eye. He felt a bit guilty – he knew his quiet teammate had watched his parents die, barely a toddler.

"How are there still orphans?" Tsunade asked. All three of them had ceased painting now, and were actively listening. "Wouldn't they have grown up by now?"

Hiruzen shook his head. "The first wave of orphans has already grown up and is now a group of young adults, but those devastated by the war may not be able to take care of children, should they have them. Some children – some mere babies – have been found on the streets in near-death states, suffering from dehydration and malnutrition."

"Who would do that to their own children?" Tsunade asked in horror. "How could someone do that?"

"Well," their sensei said gently, "if you knew your children would have a better life in the orphanage than you could provide them, wouldn't it be easier on you and your children to do just that?"

Tsunade didn't have anything to say to that, and nobody expected her to. Jiraiya knew that out of the three of them, Tsunade was the least worldly. She didn't know what it was like to feel hunger and pain because she'd always been treated like a princess her entire life. Just judging by their clothes, it was evident that she was from the upper echelons of society; that rich-looking emerald yakuta lined with a majestic purple was certainly something neither Jiraiya nor Orochimaru could have even thought to afford.

Jiraiya probably came next on the fortune scale – at least his mother was still alive, though his father had died in the war as an unrecognized chuunin. Jiraiya himself had never really aspired to be a ninja for himself, but seeing the picture of his father proudly holding his Konoha forehead protector had really convinced him that this was the way to go. Contrary to what he had told the others, his biggest goal wasn't to just write a book, but rather to make a name for himself and make his father – and his mother – proud. His mother hadn't approved of his decision to go in the footsteps of his father. Who would want their child to follow in the footsteps of a man who died at the age of twenty-one? However, he'd been adamant and he had enrolled in the Academy. At home, sometimes tension would develop between him and his mother, but it was said that poverty brought people together and _that_ was certainly true for the two of them. It wasn't as if they were on the verge of death, and they certainly had enough to eat now that his mother was working and his contributions that came from mission went into their cash stash, but they definitely couldn't afford to move into somewhere less sketchy. The area around their apartment could be considered sketchy at best, and outright dangerous at worst.

As for their quiet teammate, Orochimaru had lost his entire family in that war. He'd grown up in the orphanage and he had been handpicked to enter the Academy by chuunin-level shinobi who had detected incredible potential in him. He'd been a scrawny kid for as long as Jiraiya could remember, but nobody bullied him, simply because of that strange aura around him. They were definitely glad that they _hadn't_ bullied him now that he'd proven himself to be one of the strongest in their class, although some kids did think he was a bit creepy.

The summer heat was beginning to die down after having persisted for the last three weeks, and Jiraiya thought it had given a pretty damn good fight against time. When they'd finally finished painting the fence (the splotch itself had taken Jiraiya fifteen whole minutes to even out), Hiruzen dismissed them for the day as he'd done for the past few weeks – with a smile and a wave. Usually they just departed, heading their separate ways, but today Jiraiya wasn't ready to go home just yet. A small devious smile found its way to his lips, and he decided right then and there what he was about to do. He'd always wondered where Orochimaru went in the afternoons, because he knew the way the other boy went wasn't in the direction of the only orphanage in the village.

So today he waved amiably to the rest of his team, pretending he was setting out to go home, but he was actually planning to just walk the way he usually did for a few minutes before he'd jump onto a rooftop and follow his teammate. Anticipation pulsed through his veins. This was much more exciting than the missions he'd been on lately – by _far_ – so as soon as he couldn't hear the sounds of the others' footsteps anymore, he scrambled up the side of a low building, using a pipe to help shimmy himself up.

It took him a couple of minutes to find Orochimaru, and when he did he ducked immediately. He knew that it would be difficult to track his teammate because the other boy was quite good at detecting pursuers, so he stayed as far away as he could without losing sight of the distinctive dark mane of hair. Orochimaru walked on without stopping anywhere or talking to anyone for quite a long time, and Jiraiya's patience began to wear thin. Wherever Orochimaru was headed, the population certainly wasn't big, and soon enough Jiraiya couldn't see any villagers walking around the streets at all. It was getting quite boring now that there weren't any women to stare at, but he reminded himself that this was like mission experience and he had to bear with it, because some missions were bound to be tedious.

It was only when Orochimaru was practically at the gate of the graveyard that Jiraiya realized where he was going. Jiraiya felt slightly awkward now, as if he was intruding on someone's private moment (not _that_ kind of private moment; he had no trouble intruding on _that_), and got ready to leave. But then he suddenly saw another person, quite close to the building on which he was perched, and with a start he realized it was Hiruzen-sensei. What was Hiruzen-sensei doing here? Was he following Orochimaru too?

Jiraiya ducked quickly, knowing that their sensei probably had even more advanced skills in detection than his teammate. He waited until he could no longer hear the soft pit-pat of his sensei's sandals on the sandy gravel before he stole from the building rooftop to the dismally gray gate of the graveyard, peering over the edge before hurrying in and hiding behind a stone monument of a kunai. This was a bit eerie, sneaking around a graveyard. The ground was covered in dead, dried grass, that probably covered hundreds, if not thousands, of dead, dried-up bodies. The grass crackled slightly upon touch, like an old woman's complaints about her joints. There was something about this place that, quite ironically, felt _alive. _Jiraiya had never been one prone to superstition, but the mere feeling that this place gave off … he shivered. How could Orochimaru bear to come here so often?

There was a soft intake of breath from quite a ways away. Jiraiya gave a start, curling into himself to be as small as possible behind the monument.

"A white snake," the calm voice of Hiruzen-sensei observed. The gasp must have come from Orochimaru. "And I'm assuming this is your parents' grave?"

A pause.

"Yes, sir," came an inflectionless voice.

Another pause was followed by the faint sound of tumbling dirt and gravel. A hiss. "This is an omen of good fortune and longevity. Rebirth. Do you believe in reincarnation?"

"No, sir," came a quick reply.

A small sigh. "It's difficult to convince the younger generation nowadays, but I believe in it. The snake sheds its skin when the skin grows old, and from that emerges the snake, as good as when it was first hatched from the egg. As if it was reborn." A small shuffling noise. "And here is the skin it has just shed." Hiruzen chuckled softly. "The heavens know that I need to change out of this skin – I'm getting much too old, I fear."

"But you're barely middle-aged. Sir," the boy added hastily.

"Orochimaru, you do not need to worry about titles with me. I won't pull rank on you unless it's during an important mission." A small thump, and Jiraiya stole a peek around the monument; their sensei had placed a hand on the small boy's shoulders. "This snake was meant for you. It's a good luck charm. Don't do that, it'll hurt it." And the boy leaned down and put the snake to the ground, letting it slither away. "Just remember that you are a blessed child."

"Yes, sir," came a quiet reply.

This was too much for Jiraiya to be overhearing. It wasn't interesting or gossip-worthy at all; instead, he now felt guilt-ridden for having intruded on this moment and quickly sidled out of the graveyard, cringing at the slight sound of the crunch of dry grass. But the two figures in the graveyard did not turn, so Jiraiya assumed they had not heard. Thus, his mission had been a success, he thought to himself as he sprinted away from this place for which just now he'd developed a slight, nauseous fear. So why did he feel so guilty for having been there?

The ten-year-old boy didn't know how to answer that.

::~::

Seven days and six more D-ranked missions (inclusive but not exclusive to catching an ugly grey feline for the fifth time in their short careers, babysitting an extremely annoying little brat, and getting completely filthy trudging around in a rice field manually gathering rice) later, Team Hiruzen was standing before the Nidaime Hokage, who smiled in a fatherly way at them. His red eyes were a bit unnerving though.

"I've decided to assign your team a C-rank mission."

Jiraiya, who'd been digging into his ear in boredom, fully expecting another task like plunging toilets, froze with his pinky finger still in his ear.

"A _C-rank mission?_" he echoed exuberantly, pulling his finger from his ear finally. The Hokage laughed, his silvery hair glinting in the sunlight. "You're not kidding, are you?" Jiraiya knew he wasn't the only one excited about this surprising piece of information; Tsunade's eyes were wide as saucers as she gaped at her great-uncle, and even Orochimaru couldn't hide a pleased look in his uptilted eye. Speaking of which, Jiraiya had noticed that Orochimaru had been a lot less reserved lately than he had been before. Which really wasn't saying much, but _still. _

"I'm not kidding," the Hokage assured them, and suddenly Jiraiya didn't find his eyes very creepy anymore at all.

"Yes!" Tsunade exclaimed, punching the air excitedly as Jiraiya grinned from ear to ear.

Hiruzen looked as if he was suppressing laughter, but he shushed his students. "Don't you want to hear what the mission is about?"

They quieted immediately.

"For the mission, you will be escorting a couple to a village near the Kumogakure border. As you know, tensions are running high between our two villages, no doubt the inevitable remnants of distrust from the war, but the route indicated in the map that will be provided to Hiruzen will be free of any dangerous shinobi. It may be, however, difficult to traverse and as you will be escorting two civilians, I would prefer a four-man squad like yours as opposed to one jounin." He sighed softly. "It's not as if you're being paid a whole lot for this mission, so it seems a bit of a waste to send a very capable jounin and three talented genin-" this time, Tsunade wasn't the only one glowing in pride "-but as you know, Konoha is not yet well-established yet in the shinobi world, and taking on even the smallest missions may prove beneficial to us in the future. So do try your best, all right?"

"Of course! Thank you, Tobirama-sama!" Tsunade chirped to her great-uncle as Hiruzen accepted the scrolls and bag the Hokage's scrawny assistant passed them.

"Daisuke, please go fetch the couple," the Hokage said to his assistant, and the youth bowed before scurrying out of the room. "And in the meantime, I'd like to talk to you about something, Hiruzen."

Jiraiya looked up at his sensei, who looked visibly surprised. "Of course, sensei." This form of address did not surprise Jiraiya, for it was well-known that the Second Hokage had taught Hiruzen.

"I'm organizing an elite ninja squad that will consist of six of your peers for a mission in the near future, probably not long after you return from this one. Would you be interested in joining the mission? It will likely be a dangerous one, easily A-class."

_A-class? _Jiraiya realized there might be something more to his sensei than the smell and the pipe.

"Of course. I'd be delighted to join." The Hokage looked pleased with Hiruzen's answer as he nodded. At that point, there was a knock on the door before the secretary entered with two people trailing behind him, both of whom appeared to be middle-class. Jiraiya studied them closely (especially the woman, who, other than a rather conspicuous mole on her face, was quite pretty and was even curvier than Misaki-chan), noting that though their clothes looked luxurious at first glance, the edges were actually quite frayed, as if they had been travelling extensively and without many changes of clothes.

"This is Tsuyoshi and Natsuki, your two patrons. Their dialect is a bit different, so you may have slight difficulties communicating. Tsuyoshi, Natsuki, these are your guides. They will be led by one of our best shinobi, Sarutobi Hiruzen, and the children are not to be underestimated either."

The couple turned to them and smiled, bowing slightly while Jiraiya noticed Tsunade glancing at them somewhat appraisingly, as if surprised by their appearance.

"You'll be departing as soon as possible, so I'll leave the rest up to Hiruzen."

Team Hiruzen murmured goodbyes and thank-yous to the Hokage before leaving. Hiruzen smiled at the couple and inclined his head respectfully. "How about we meet at the village gates in an hour? That should be enough time for the kids to pack up and all. It will be a few days' journey one way," he said, looking at his protégés before explaining it to the couple slowly, for they really seemed to not understand much of what Team Hiruzen said to them.

Jiraiya was too excited to care how long this mission was and he dashed home after nodding a hasty reply. Once home, he took the bedroll and shinobi pack the Academy had given him upon graduation and lugged it to the front door.

"Where are you going with all of that?" his mother demanded, having just returned from grocery shopping, and her arms were laden with vegetables.

"On a mission!" he shouted. "I'll be back in a few days!"

Ignoring his mother's protests and shouts for him to 'come back this instant!', he dashed to the gates, making sure to pass by the training fields. There, he saw Team Takeru, a member of which was his rival, Uchiha Tadashi, who was a year older than him. His friend Shigeru, who was also on that team, waved at him.

"Where are you going?" Shigeru called in the middle of kunai accuracy practice. Jiraiya suppressed the urge to laugh. _His_ team never did anything as stupid as knife-throwing during practices – that was the good thing about being in an _elite_ team. _His_ team was probably the best to have emerged that year, containing three of the best and youngest students. Hiruzen only had to teach them chakra manipulation during practice.

"On a _C-rank_ mission!" he called back loudly, enjoying Tadashi's look of surprise and annoyance, laughing loudly when the Uchiha's next kunai completely missed the post he was supposed to be hitting, and continued his race to the village gates. On the way, he upset a cabbage cart and two irate women but he kept plowing his way through, because today was an extremely important day.

Today was the first time he would set foot outside the village.

Ever since the war, restrictions on people entering and leaving the village had tightened, and most kids Jiraiya's age and even those considerably older had never left Konoha, much less gone on missions outside the village.

When he arrived at the gates, only Tsunade hadn't arrived yet. The couple was standing slightly to the side, and Orochimaru was beside Hiruzen-sensei, quiet as usual. But seeing Jiraiya, the other boy suddenly smiled, which confused Jiraiya a _lot_. He'd _never_ seen Orochimaru smile, and to _him_ at that!

"Jiraiya-kun," the boy greeted him somewhat solemnly and formally.

"Um … hi," the white-haired boy said rather awkwardly, scratching the back of his head in bewilderment. This particular teammate hardly ever spoke to him, so his interactions on missions were usually exclusive to arguments with Tsunade and occasional small talk with their sensei. Jiraiya stared out the gates, not knowing what to do next. The small, beaten path he saw was where they were headed, away from the village!

Fortunately, Jiraiya was spared further awkwardness when Tsunade arrived, a small boy with bright red cheeks in tow. The boy seemed to be refusing to let go of her hand.

"Nawaki, let me go! Go back to mom – I'm going on a mission," she said haughtily, and the boy reluctantly let go. This kid was barely big enough to walk, and Jiraiya thought he looked rather like a small rodent.

"Bye-bye nee-chan," he said in the slurred tone of a toddler causing Tsunade to roll her eyes, but she kissed him on his rosy cheeks nevertheless. Jiraiya sniggered at the uncharacteristically gentle action from the typically brash tomboy.

"Good, we're all here now!" Hiruzen said. "Tsunade-chan, please remember to arrive punctually next time. Now let's go." Jiraiya smirked at his female teammate, who merely scowled at him in return.

Jiraiya sprinted forward, out of the village for the first time in his life. It was a little bit anti-climatic, but nevertheless, he whooped for joy and spun around excitedly.

He heard quiet laughter from behind him, and realized it was their two patrons.

"He's not usually this immature," he heard his sensei say with a touch of embarrassment. "He's actually quite an adept fighter, like the other two."

"Is this your first time out of the village?" came a quiet voice. Surprised yet again by Orochimaru, Jiraiya's head turned slightly to see both of his teammates by his side.

"Yeah," he said, "and you two?"

"Same," Tsunade sighed. "Father always refused to let me out of the village. It's a good thing Tobirama-sama announced the mission so quickly or else Father would have _flipped_."

"I've been outside before." Jiraiya glanced at Orochimaru in surprise before realization suddenly dawned on him. Of course the other boy would have been out of Konoha before. He had come here as a refugee with his family … though that had only gotten his parents killed.

Tsunade seemed to have realized the complications of starting this topic too, and she hastily said, "So did you guys manage to focus your chakra like sensei taught us? I had a little trouble at first, but now it's easy." She looked insufferably smug.

"Yeah, well, _I _can do it on _water_," Jiraiya bragged. This wasn't _exactly_ true, but he was able to balance himself on top of water for a few seconds at least! But he _had_ definitely mastered the tree-climbing exercise their sensei had given them. They didn't need to ask Orochimaru, because the quietest member of their team also happened to be the best at chakra control.

"Anyway, I still can't get over how we're genin now," Tsunade said, sighing. The three of them were leading the little group, with their sensei making small talk with the couple they were escorting behind them. "I sorta miss the Academy now that we've graduated."

"_I_ don't," Jiraiya said bluntly. "I'm glad I don't have to see that stupid Uchiha every day."

Tsunade snorted inelegantly. "You don't like him only because 'Misaki-chan' _likes_ him!"

Glaring, Jiraiya retorted, "That's crap, and you know it! Tadashi is a stupid, conceited –"

"'Misaki-chan' doesn't seem to think so!"

"Shut up!"

Tsunade laughed. She certainly liked doing so, and always at Jiraiya's expense. "She stuffs her bra, you know," she said secretively. "Ayumi told me so."

Jiraiya was horrified. "That's not true!"

"Yeah, it is! And even though she's twelve already, she hasn't grown anything!"

"You're just saying that because you're jealous!"

Suddenly they both turned from their argument as a quiet, effeminate laugh rang out. In shock – for the umpteenth time that day, he realized, disgruntled – they both saw that it had come from Orochimaru.

"Hey," Tsunade said with wide eyes. She seemed to have forgotten completely about their spat. "You sure seem a lot more cheerful lately. What's up?"

Orochimaru seemed to be a bit hesitant about opening up. "I … I had a talk with Hiruzen-sensei," he admitted finally, and Jiraiya stifled the comment on the tip of his tongue because _he_ knew exactly what this talk had been about. It must have been _that_ one. "It made me feel happier."

Jiraiya managed to keep his mouth shut, but Tsunade laughed. "I'm glad," she said, much to both boys' surprise. "Now we can all be friends!"

_Friends?_ Jiraiya screwed up his face in thought. Would he ever be _friends_ with Tsunade and Orochimaru? They weren't like Shigeru and his friends from back at the Academy, with whom he got along very easily. In fact, both Tsunade and Orochimaru had been loners, in a way. Tsunade had been avoided because all the teachers loved her, and she was rather stuck-up. As for Orochimaru, it was more a matter of discomfort, as he was quiet and introverted, never talking to anyone. It wasn't the best thing that he was at the top of the class despite being the youngest either, because everyone feared him a little bit. And really, he was a bit queer. Jiraiya had spotted him picking the legs off ants and moths in the playground on multiple occasions, and he always did it with a faint look of curiosity on his face. It had been something that had creeped out a lot of other kids, but it really wasn't so bad, considering they were shinobi. Now that he was getting to know the other boy, maybe he'd be all right…

When they stopped for lunch a few hours later, Hiruzen was the only one who appeared not even remotely fatigued.

"Now, we've made quite a bit of progress this morning and I'm quite happy with what we've done. But I want to remind you," he spoke to the three genin, "that at any time, we could run into enemies at any time, and I want you to be prepared for battle, okay?"

Jiraiya hadn't really been listening, and had really just been chugging his water furiously in a race against Tsunade, but when their sensei shot them a warning look, both nodded meekly before resuming the competition. Their meal was a lunchbox, not unlike the ones Hiruzen had brought to their first training session, and their sensei warned them that the meals would be getting progressively less appetizing, so they should enjoy this one while they could.

After lunch, they began to set out again with the sun beating down on their backs. Jiraiya looked longingly at the shaded woods. "Can't we walk through the forest?" he whined. He'd already taken off his outermost layer of clothing and was walking with just a light chainmail vest on. The pack on his back was terribly suffocating, and he could feel the sweat pouring down his back.

Hiruzen chuckled, shaking his head. "The forest is a much more dangerous terrain. Enemies could be hiding anywhere, and they could be on you before you could even cry for help."

Jiraiya knew that most of these enemies were actually missing-nin who had fled after the war, and that some of them were really quite dangerous. Would their little group even stand a chance?

"Sensei, is it true that you're going to be the next Hokage?" Tsunade asked suddenly, her face inclined upwards toward their sensei. Both Jiraiya and Orochimaru looked up in surprise – _he'd_ never heard of this before!

Hiruzen looked a bit abashed. "I'm not sure where you heard that, Tsunade-chan," he said, his cheeks reddening slightly, "but I can assure you that nothing will be – or can be, for that matter – decided anytime soon. Our Nidaime Hokage is faring excellently, and he's certainly done a great job already. Let's hope that his rule lasts years longer."

Jiraiya had heard about the feats their current Hokage had accomplished. Apparently, he'd been the one who had established much of the security around Konoha, both during and after the war, such as the small group that villagers sometimes saw called ANBU. Jiraiya wasn't sure what it stood for, but he knew they were high-level shinobi who helped maintain peace around the village.

Suddenly, Orochimaru stumbled a little, his usually fluid gait broken. Jiraiya was a little surprised, and even more so when he noticed his teammates eyes were quite wide open, as if somewhat fearful…

Hiruzen suddenly clapped a hand to the boy's shoulder rather firmly, and Orochimaru took a deep breath before walking quite naturally again. Perplexed, Jiraiya wondered what it had been about for a few moment, but suddenly –

No less than five shuriken were flung their way, but they were all knocked out of the air by their sensei, who then threw a kunai in the direction from which the shuriken had come.

A thrill of fear and anticipation suddenly rang through Jiraiya's body; this was his first real fight!

He whipped out a kunai, holding it in front of him in the best stance that he could muster, and felt Tsunade and Orochimaru do the same. With a start, he realized Orochimaru's little stumble must have been because he'd detected the enemy! How had he done that?

But to his surprise, their sensei suddenly held an arm out, pushing them back towards the couple. "Stay on the defensive, team. Protecting our clients is the most important part of the mission."

Jiraiya ground his teeth together in frustration, but he knew his sensei was right. They had to keep the civilians safe; that came above fighting with an enemy.

"So you're not just a little family?" came a voice from the trees. But strangely, it seemed as if every word came from a different location… Jiraiya's head whipped around, but he couldn't detect where the enemy was. "Pity. But it'll be no harder to kill off shinobi if they're from Konoha!"

Suddenly the ground was turned to sludge, and Jiraiya could feel his feet sinking deeply but no matter how hard he tried to move them, they wouldn't budge.

"Oho," Hiruzen said delicately, seeming completely unfazed about the fact that he was almost knee-deep in sludge and completely unable to move, "Suna-nin, are you?"

A laugh reverberated from everywhere. "Figured it out too late."

A slender ninja wearing a Suna forehead protector leaped lightly out of a bush to the right, a thumb stroking the edge of a glinting kunai. He looked rather androgynous, with his reddish-brown eyes framed with dark lashes, feminine lips and long cocoa-coloured hair. But there was just something about the shape of his jaw that convinced Jiraiya that this was a man (and the flatness of his chest, though the young kunoichi beside him was evidence that this didn't prove anything).

"I don't think it was ever a matter of time," Hiruzen said in the same delicate tone, and before surprise could even completely make its way across his enemy's face, he had made some hand seals and blew steaming ash over the ground that trapped them.

The earth melted.

_That's_ why he smoked so much! Jiraiya made a mental note to never criticize his sensei's smoking habits again as he leapt back into position with his teammates, guarding the civilian couple as his sensei faced off with the Suna-nin. He heard a slight huff from the blond girl beside him, and he knew she was thinking that she could have gotten them out of there instead.

The Suna-nin regarded their group rather warily. It was evident that he hadn't expected them to put up a fight at all. "And I'm assuming the little brats have a few tricks up their sleeves too?" the Suna-nin said finally as he surveyed them.

Jiraiya growled, fingers tightening around his kunai – he hated being called a little brat. He'd enjoy beating this guy up…

Quite abruptly, the Suna-nin's eyes unfocussed, and the kunai in his hands fell to the ground with an audible clatter. Jiraiya tensed – was he feinting? But Hiruzen's stance relaxed and with a slight chuckle, he turned to his students.

"Nice genjutsu, Orochimaru," he said approvingly, and Jiraiya turned to Orochimaru in shock. "Just the right strength." The other boy's face contained a trace of a shy smile.

After Hiruzen dispatched a Shadow Clone to transport a trussed-up the Suna-nin back to Konoha, Jiriaya turned again to Orochimaru. "How did you do that?"

The other boy looked a bit startled to be questioned. "I … just did it. It's just genjutsu," he said softly, as if he couldn't understand why anyone would have trouble with it.

"That was awesome!" Tsunade exclaimed as she ran up to her teammates. The pale boy seemed to flush the slightest bit in embarrassment and it only intensified when Hiruzen clapped a hand to his shoulder.

"You did a great job, Orochimaru. Just what he didn't expect – a genin to attack him."

"I just did what you taught me, sensei," the boy said softly. Jiraiya's ears pricked up in surprise – taught him? Hiruzen had never taught them genjutsu, so was he teaching Orochimaru in private?

Tsunade's face betrayed quite a significant amount of jealousy, but strangely enough, Jiraiya didn't feel jealous. He supposed it was because though Orochimaru was so talented, he never showed arrogance – not like a certain Uchiha. He also thought Tsunade was being quite selfish, because even if Hiruzen were to teach _her_ in private, it wouldn't exactly be normal, just because she was a girl. Kunoichi _always_ learned from other kunoichi, but it was beginning to become a bit difficult as the number of kunoichi in the new generation was increasing, and the old generations of shinobi only consisted of a few women.

"Anyway, I want to congratulate you all on your first battle. All of you held out very well, and showed no fear at all." Hiruzen beamed at them, and even the moping Tsunade couldn't help but look a bit proud at that comment.

::~::

**Notes: Thus ends the second chapter of the story! I was planning on finishing the entire mission in this one chapter, but as you can tell, it didn't work out (too long!) so I've broken it up. The mission will be finished in the next chapter. Hope you guys are enjoying the story thus far – what do you think of sweet little Orochimaru? ;) Don't worry, I'll definitely keep him evil though! As always, please _review, follow,_ and _favourite!_ –Jennifer *hugs***

**Again, thanks a lot to IncessantOblivion for thorough edits! 3**


	3. A Test of Character

**Hello all - third chapter, and the longest thus far! Enjoy! :)**

* * *

By the time their group stopped for dinner, Jiraiya was exhausted and Tsunade boasted five blisters on her feet. Orochimaru asked for water, which was pretty extreme by his standards.

"Feel free to drink up now," Hiruzen said as they began to unpack at a small clearing a few minutes into the forest, "because we'll be coming to a clean little stream in a few hours and we can refill our water there. After that though, you'll have to conserve the water you have."

"We're not going anywhere after dinner, right sensei?" Tsunade asked, enviously watching their two clients, who were drinking aloe juice on a padded mattress. She turned to her sensei. "We're setting camp for the night, right?"

Hiruzen sighed, scratching his goatee. "I was planning on going a bit more, but I guess you're right. I can't carry Natsuki-san the whole day tomorrow." Only a little after lunch, he had had to begin carrying their female client while her husband struggled to stay on his feet for another few hours before Hiruzen took pity on his and called up a Shadow Clone.

"Yes!" Jiraiya exclaimed in relief, flopping down onto the rocky ground, not caring that it was dirty. At least his feet found relief. It wasn't really the distance they had walked – they'd been forced to run so many laps around the walls of the village that this distance was laughable – but rather the hardness of the beaten path and the heaviness of the packs they carried.

Orochimaru sat down beside him, bringing his knees up and curling up into a small ball.

To their left, Tsunade huffed, "Boys…" as she unrolled her sleeping bag, wincing as her feet came in contact with the ground.

Hiruzen unpacked some food from his pack, which was easily twice the size of any of theirs, and contained all the necessities for their clients as well as most of the food. The emergency food was split up amongst the three genin in case they got lost, but most of the weight of the packs came from all the weapons they were carrying.

They ate a simple dinner of white rice and a cold steamed bun each.

"For future missions, we'll be taking turns keeping watch at night," Hiruzen explained to his students as they finished the last of their dinners. "For the next few days, I might get you to do watches in pairs." Jiraiya and Tsunade simultaneously inched away from one another. "But I know you're all tired today, so I'll keep watch for the whole night, and make sure to sleep well!"

Their sleeping bags were strewn in a rough circle with the clients across from the three genin. Unfortunately, Tsunade decided to put her sleeping bag beside Jiraiya's while Orochimaru was on his other side.

"What?" she snapped, as he scrutinized her. "There isn't space over there, idiot."

He shrugged (before realizing it hurt to shrug against hard ground), but he knew there _was_ space on Orochimaru's other side and he was confused as to why she had chosen this spot.

Jiraiya began to drift off to sleep and was about halfway there when he sensed movement near him. Realizing it was Orochimaru getting up, his curiosity was piqued and he woke up fully, listening attentively. What was he doing?

"Couldn't sleep?" asked Hiruzen's voice softly. Jiraiya strained to hear.

"I wanted to ask you something," Orochimaru's voice came from the same direction as that of the older man.

"Ask away."

"Is there a way to bring back the dead?"

There was a slight pause, and Jiraiya stiffened. Raising the dead? "Are you wondering about if there's any way to bring your parents back?"

There was silence for a moment again, and Jiraiya supposed that Orochimaru had nodded.

"It's rumoured that there is a technique to do that," Hiruzen said quietly, "but they are only rumours."

"Why hasn't anyone done it then?" Orochimaru asked quickly, excitement colouring his voice.

"Because it is unnatural," Hiruzen replied sharply. "I know your intentions are not evil, because you have a good soul, but there are many who would take advantage of it – imagine raising the most notorious ninja from the dead. It would be an absolute calamity. If the jutsu does indeed exist, it is something I would not hesitate to lock away forever."

Then his voice softened. "I understand the loss is hard to bear, and I won't lie and say it gets easier with time. But should you ever have worries or concerns … you have your team. You have us."

"Thank you, sensei," he whispered before Jiraiya felt him returning to sleep.

::~::

Morning came and Tsunade was woken by a very obnoxious voice.

"I like you too, Misaki-chan! Come here…" Jiraiya was muttering in his sleep, and Tsunade batted away his groping hands in disgust. In his sleep, he had rolled closer to her and they were almost face-to-face.

"Oi!" she hissed, punching him in the shoulder. "Wake up, you pervert!"

Jiraiya woke with a start, yelping upon seeing Tsunade's face so close to his. "What are you doing!"

"Protecting my virtue!" she retorted, blushing slightly, standing up and shaking off her sleeping bag. "Stop doing weird things to me in the morning!"

If Tsunade was honest to herself, she would have admitted that she liked this white-haired boy much more than she let on. He was annoying sometimes (not to mention that he was shorter than her) but he wasn't as mean as some of the other boys from their Academy class who had made fun of her, or just shunned her completely. Sure, _he_ made fun of her too, but he didn't really mean most of the things he said – she was sure of that.

Tsunade was glad she was on his team because at least she wouldn't seem like a complete outcast with whom nobody wanted to speak. And Orochimaru really wasn't that bad either, and he'd proven himself to be quite strong as well. She felt quite safe in this team, especially with Hiruzen-sensei as their leader.

However, the blisters on her feet hadn't gotten any better and she winced with every step from the very start of their trek. She'd never been subject to such discomfort. The only injury she had really sustained was when she had accidentally cut herself with a kunai during her Academy; the cut had spanned from the base of her pinky to her wrist and it had taken a month for it to scab over completely.

They refilled their water pouches at the small stream that their sensei had promised, and Tsunade fought the urge to kick off her sandals and dunk her feet in, regardless of how many fish she killed with the stench of her sweaty feet. But she had refrained, because it would make her look weak, and continued onto the hard, rocky terrain.

"Tsunade-chan, are you all right?" Hiruzen-sensei called when she stumbled for the fifth time on a small crag. The landscape had become increasingly mountainous, and Hiruzen had told them that they would be approaching extremely steep paths soon. She didn't know how she would manage to climb those.

"My feet hurt," she admitted, trying not to make her voice sound whiny. Hiruzen was carrying one client and a Shadow Clone of his was carrying the other.

Hiruzen pursed his lips. "Do you need to be carried?"

"No!" Tsunade said hastily. She didn't want her teammates to look down at her and think she was weak. She tried forming chakra at the soles of her feet like during the tree-climbing exercise, but instead of making her feet stick to the ground, she put a bit more power into the chakra so that it pushed her upwards, like a small spring. It took a bit of getting used to, but eventually she was comfortable doing it, and most of all, her feet were no longer in pain.

"Very clever," Hiruzen commented. "But are you sure you have enough chakra to do that?"

She nodded. "Father told me that people in our clan have more chakra than other people."

Hiruzen smiled. "That's right," he said agreeably, "the Senju clan is quite a special clan."

The mountain ranges Hiruzen-sensei had mentioned were visible now, and Tsunade's heart dropped. It wasn't just _steep_ – some parts looked nearly vertical!

"How are we supposed to climb _that!_" Jiraiya complained hotly.

Tsunade couldn't resist smirking at him. "Didn't you say you'd mastered it?" She hadn't believed him to begin with – even _she _hadn't mastered walking on water, so _he_ couldn't have!

"It's not as difficult as it looks," Hiruzen assured them as the path began to steepen considerably. He didn't look tired at all despite not having slept the previous night. _And_ he was carrying both clients! "You kids should go first so you can set the pace. I'll be right behind you."

Jiraiya went first, followed by Orochimaru, and Tsunade made sure she was last, so that she would be closest to their sensei just in case she fell. But as she began climbing, she realized he was right, and it wasn't even as difficult as the tree-climbing exercise. For some reason, the hardness of the rock actually made it easier to climb than the slightly softer tree bark. She had no trouble keeping up with the two in front of her, and she and Orochimaru had to pause several times to wait for Jiraiya.

"Hurry up, slowpoke!" she teased and she was rewarded with a grunt of frustration. Sometimes she just couldn't resist making him angry. "We're all waiting for you!"

"Slow and steady, Jiraiya," Hiruzen called. "Don't worry about us, just keep at your own pace."

But Jiraiya seemed to take Tsunade's words to heart, and his speed was increasing as he pushed himself up the mountain. She could feel that he was exerting way too much chakra, pushing his energy into the bedrock, but before she could say anything, there was a resounding crack.

She didn't have time to scream as a huge chunk of rock came hurtling down.

::~::

Jiraiya slumped against the bedrock in terror, hands reaching forward to seek purchase.

_"Fuchiyose no Justsu!" _his sensei shouted and made hand seals at the speed of light:

Boar dog bird monkey ram.

There was a loud _crack_ again and a whole lot of smoke, and Jiraiya gripped the mountainside so hard that he was sure his fingers were going to be permanently molded into the shape of the crevices.

But the boulder that had just been hurtling down at them never hit, and he opened his eyes a tiny crack.

There was an enormous, humanoid figure perched on the vertical mountain with them on one bare foot. In shock, Jiraiya realized it was a gigantic monkey, dressed in ninja clothes and a tiger-fur pelt, his pose rather dramatic.

It was wearing a Konoha forehead protector.

The boulder was in one of its hands, like the size of a football in a human's hands, and its eyes glinted with human-like intelligence. Strangely, its face had a striking resemblance to Hiruzen-sensei's, apart from the tangle of white hair. _Sideburns_, Jiraiya realized with a sudden urge to laugh.

"Thanks Enma," Hiruzen called from somewhere below Jiraiya, and the monkey responded with a grunt as it tossed the boulder far away from them as if it weighed nothing. "You might want to shrink a little – I don't think the mountain can take much more."

The monkey snorted and right before Jiraiya's eyes, it began to shrink until it was about Hiruzen's height.

"Are these the kids you're teaching?" the monkey asked, his voice a low, rumbling noise.

"Yes. Tsunade, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, meet Enma."

The three of them managed to squeak out greetings. The monkey looked at them one by one, his gaze landing on Orochimaru for a little bit longer than the others.

"Well," Enma turned back to Hiruzen, "if you don't need any more help, I'm going to get going." Hiruzen nodded and the monkey disappeared with a salute.

"What-" Jiraiya started, but Hiruzen interrupted him immediately.

"Let's get up this mountainside first and then talk. Concentrate on this."

Jiraiya felt prickling shame crawl up his neck as he realized this was all his fault. Well, it was Tsunade's fault really, but he shouldn't have responded to her taunts. She was always trying to provoke him like that, and he'd just been so angry and frustrated that he had paid no heed to how much chakra he was pushing into the mountainside until it was too late and the boulder had nearly been upon them.

It took them only a few minutes to reach the top of the mountain, whereupon Hiruzen told them that they'd be stopping for lunch at the nearest clearing. At the top of the mountain there seemed to be a large forest of tall pine trees, and the ground was sparsely littered with green pine needles and brown acorns that had been ravaged by squirrels, no doubt.

They found an adequate place to sit down after kicking aside some pine needles, and Hiruzen handed them bowls of rice again.

Making sure Tsunade wasn't anywhere near, Jiraiya sought out his sensei, head bowed.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled to Hiruzen's sandal-clad feet. His toenails were rather ugly, stained yellow and cracked. Would Jiraiya's toenails turn like that too? Maybe he deserved it for endangering the mission. "I am really sorry for just rushing ahead like that."

He expected his sensei to yell at him. To shout out to everyone how horrible of a student he was and that he didn't deserve to be on this mission. That he should just paint fences and plunge toilets for the rest of his life like all the other kids at his level. Or maybe Hiruzen would skip all of that and just beat him to a pulp.

So naturally he was quite surprised when a hand dropped on his head and ruffled his hair.

His eyes widened and he looked up in surprise. His sensei smiled at him comfortingly.

"Aren't … aren't you going to yell at me?" Jiraiya asked uncertainly.

"Everyone makes mistakes, Jiraiya-kun. This isn't your first mistake, it won't be your last, and it certainly won't be your gravest mistake."

Jiraiya ducked his head.

"Don't worry about it too much. Just learn from it and remember that everyone has their own pace. Think of it this way: right now, Tsunade-chan is the tallest of you three, but you and Orochimaru-kun will probably grow taller than her." Seeing a sudden grin flit across the boy's face, the older man added hastily, "Now, I'm not saying that you two will necessarily always be stronger than her, so don't go telling her that!"

"Thanks sensei," Jiraiya said, still grinning. "How did you get that monkey guy to appear so quickly?"

Hiruzen grimaced. "Don't call Enma that to his face – he won't take kindly to it. He prefers 'The Lord of the Monkeys,' and he's my Summon – all great shinobi have Summons," Hiruzen said with a wink.

Before Jiraiya could question him further, there was a shrill scream.

Hiruzen was beside the female client in a matter of milliseconds, and she looked very embarrassed, but quite frightened as she stared at the ground.

"Snake," she said with a tremor in her voice and a thick accent marring the one word, but before Hiruzen could do anything, the woman's husband kicked the snake very roughly into the bushes. The woman relaxed then, laughing nervously, but Jiraiya noticed that both Hiruzen and Orochimaru winced.

As they set off into the forest – which had comfortable, soft dirt on which to walk – Jiraiya couldn't help but notice Orochimaru's strange behaviour. He seemed to be walking a little bit stiffly and furtively glancing around every few seconds. He would have said something to his quiet, unassuming teammate and asked what was wrong but for the blond girl who insisted on his ineptness as a shinobi.

"You didn't master it, did you?" she said, grinning in a disgustingly superior manner.

"Did too," he mumbled hotly, trying not to pay attention to her, because when he did, bad things happened. Like boulders.

"Then you come you were so slow back there?"

"Was not!"

"Were too!"

They bickered until Hiruzen stopped their entire group for an early supper a couple hours later. "We'll eat early so we can get another few hours in before stopping for the night," he explained. "Then it won't turn out like yesterday." Seeing his students' downcast expressions, he laughed, "Come on, think about it this way. If we go at this pace we'll be there by lunchtime tomorrow."

Hiruzen instructed Tsunade to stay with their clients while he took the other two into the forest to collect some wood that they could use to make a fire so that they could boil water and make instant porridge from the packets of powder that had been brought along. Jiraiya had looked longingly at the mat on which Tsunade was sharing with their clients, but his female teammate caught him looking and stuck her tongue out at him.

He'd turned away, refusing to sink to her level and stick his tongue out in return (though the thought was tempting), following his sensei and teammate further into the dim forest. Hiruzen stopped them at a fallen log and pulled out a kunai.

"Just wait until I have a couple of logs, and help me lug them back, all right?" he said as the edge of his kunai grew bright with chakra, something that would enhance the strength of his hacking. As soon as Hiruzen had informally dismissed them, Orochimaru all but shot off to their right, and Jiraiya followed him slowly in curiosity.

It took him about a minute to actually find the other boy.

Orochimaru was crouching down, his back towards Jiraiya, so he had to walk closer to see what his teammate was actually doing.

Jiraiya almost fell backwards when he saw.

Orochimaru was feeding a small furry body to a yellow-brown snake with a crushed tail.

"Is that … a squirrel?" he demanded, disgusted.

Orochimaru didn't flinch. "I think so," the pale boy said quietly, and for the first time, Jiraiya noted how similar his teammate's eyes were to that of the snake. The other boy turned to him with a pleading look in those eyes. "I couldn't just leave it there. The man … he crushed its tail, see?" And he lifted the deformed bottom half of the snake to show Jiraiya, who shuddered slightly. It wasn't that he was afraid of snakes – not even ones that were easily the length of his arm like the one Orochimaru was holding – but it was just the act of feeding something _dead_ to a snake that revolted him.

Or was it dead? There were no bloody marks on the squirrel, but by the unnatural shape in which it was contorted, Jiraiya had assumed it was dead. But quite visibly, the squirrel's body twitched slightly as the snake attempted to shove it headfirst into its gaping jaws. He shuddered even harder – it was worse with something _alive._

"Are you going to keep it or something?" Jiraiya was _not_ sleeping next to Orochimaru if that was what his teammate was planning. He would rather share a sleeping bag with Tsunade! – all right, no, he wouldn't, but just knowing that he would consider it was a pretty clear indication of how revolted he was by this whole affair.

Orochimaru shook his head and turned back to the snake, which had finished swallowing the squirrel and was now gazing at them innocently with a conspicuous lump in its body. A pink, forked tongue flicked out. "I can't," he answered softly as he put his hand to the ground and allowed the snake to slither away slowly, tail deformed. "But I just wanted to help it out a little bit. You understand right, Jiraiya-kun?"

The other boy didn't know what to say, but luckily a holler from their sensei spared him an answer to that question.

::~::

The next day, their route was diverted when the two clients convinced them to pass through a small trading village through a series of excited hand signals and accented half-sentences. Hiruzen had sighed heavily, but agreed to the request.

The village of Isho, according to Hiruzen, had been a trading village for decades, and there were probably only two or three families who were actually residents there. Approximately another three hundred people were there at most times as merchants or shoppers, or people simply wishing to rest a night in the numerous inns.

It was a bustling, noisy place, and it became evident almost immediately that most of the people were civilians who shot them nasty looks and whispered things behind furtive hands.

"Konoha ninja, are they?"

"Sending children out to fight!"

"They should stay out of here."

"The Leaf's stirring up trouble again?"

"Another war's going to break out, you mark my words…"

Jiraiya turned to Hiruzen, whose face was tight, and Tsunade asked, "Sensei, why are they saying things like that? I thought Konoha was a peaceful place."

Hiruzen glanced at the curiosity-filled faces of his three protégés. "We are certainly peaceful relative to many other nations, but seeing shinobi tends to arouse this kind of reaction in civilians. Although I would have thought three kids would have made the situation better instead of worse."

"Why would they be scared?" Jiraiya demanded. "We're just helping some people like them to their homes."

"Well … there's been fearful talk of the Five Great Nations building up secret armies for as long as I can remember, and seeing shinobi from other countries doesn't help assuage that fear."

"Aren't we living in 'an era of peace'? That's what Father told me. Why would they be building up armies?"

"Not 'they'," Hiruzen corrected her softly. "It's all of us. The war stopped with an armistice, and not a peace treaty, although it's been proven how little _those_ count anyhow." He frowned at a memory, and then turned back to them. "A lot of it is confidential information, but I daresay you'll find out if anything major happens. Now," he said, clapping his hands together in a fashion that convinced Jiraiya he was eager to leave this subject, "who wants to go for dango?"

Seeing the colourful displays of dango behind glass windows was enough to distract Jiraiya from the previous conversation, and he dashed over, Tsunade following almost as quickly but with a frown on her face. Hiruzen and Orochimaru sauntered over after the older man had made arrangements with their excited clients to meet back in an hour.

"Well, I _think_ I made it clear to them," he said sighing and rubbing his temples. "I couldn't tell whether they understood or not though."

Frankly, Jiraiya didn't care about anything but the funny-looking green-and-pink dango that gazed at him enticingly, and he pointed to it eagerly.

"Well, go ahead and buy it," Hiruzen said in an amused tone.

Jiraiya's face fell. "I … didn't bring any money. I thought you were treating us!"

Hiruzen laughed. "I was only joking. It's Tsunade's birthday today anyway, so I'll treat you all."

Jiraiya turned to his blond teammate in surprise. It was her birthday? Well, nobody could really blame him for having forgotten because shinobi didn't really celebrate birthdays. Shinobi celebrated promotions and graduations, or success in a difficult mission. Besides, even Tsunade looked a little surprised.

"Aw, did you forget?" Hiruzen chuckled as he nudged his female student.

"I … maybe," she said evasively. "Usually my family makes a big deal out of it, so I don't really _have_ to remember … But you still owe us the dango!" she said hastily.

"I didn't know you were older than me," Jiraiya said gleefully to the birthday girl after Hiruzen had bought them all dangos. "You're what, twelve now?"

"Eleven," she scowled, but her angry expression disappeared when she took the first bite of her purple dango. "This is really good!" she exclaimed, waving the taro-flavoured snack around excitedly.

Jiraiya's matcha-and-sakura dango was excellent too. Orochimaru had picked the plainest dango and was eying it suspiciously, as if he expected the sticky sauce to leap up and engulf him.

"Have you never eaten dango before?" Jiraiya asked. Orochimaru shook his head slightly, twisting the stick he held at the very bottom, as if afraid to touch the delectable food.

"Just eat it already!" Tsunade laughed, and Orochimaru hesitantly put the food to his lips, eyes widening most likely in surprise at how good it was.

Orochimaru finished his dango first, even though he'd been the last to start.

"Are you kids done here?" Hiruzen called. He'd gone away for a little while, telling them that he'd be back in a few minutes while shooting a pretty, young woman furtive glances. Jiraiya made a mental note to keep this in mind if and when he met his sensei's wife. It would be a good form of blackmail, he thought with a grin.

They met up with their clients, whose arms were now laden with items Jiraiya swore hadn't been there before, outside the shop.

"There's only a few more kilometers before we get to your village," Hiruzen said, trying to explain with gestures to the confused-looking clients. "A few more … oh, forget it, you'll see once we get there."

Satisfactorily full of the sweet snack, the three genin led the group with considerably more cheer.

"Happy birthday, Tsunade-chan," Orochimaru said with a small, shy smile.

She grinned at her quiet teammate. "Thanks, Oro-kun!"

"Oro-kun?" Jiraiya echoed, chortling. "What kind of name is that?"

"What, you want me to call you Jirai-kun, just so you feel included?"

"Don't call me stupid names!"

"Jirai-kun!" she teased in a sing-song voice.

"Tsutsu-chan!"

They glanced at each other, and all three genin burst out into laughter.

It was the first time Jiraiya felt true comradeship – or at the very least, a sense of friendship – with his teammates. _Maybe we _can_ be friends. _

::~::

After dropping off their clients at their destination, there wasn't much to be said for the journey back, other than that it was considerably faster. Hiruzen took them on a different route that was much more dangerous.

"Now I have both hands free," he explained, even though Jiraiya wanted to say that no, he didn't, because one of his hands was holding that omnipresent pipe, "we can go on this route, which is faster, but more difficult to traverse."

Jiraiya could feel his ability to control molded chakra growing by the hour, and he was excited to see that he was soon able to surpass Tsunade in speed, having to wait for her behind them. But as a mark of their growing comradeship (as well as fear of being punched with a chakra-enhanced fist), he didn't tease her … as much as before, at least.

He had to admit though, he felt rather homesick by the end of the journey, and the steamed buns their clients had given them were becoming slightly stale. He couldn't wait to get home and be treated to a hot meal prepared by his mother, which was something he had never thought would be a problem, becoming a ninja. And to sleep in a warm bed – _alone_, and quite without a creepy boy and a weird girl on either side – was something he could only dream of on the nights he tossed and turned because of the unrelenting hardness of the ground.

So understandably, when the massive, red, village gates finally came into view, both Jiraiya and Tsunade were cheering and whooping. Even Orochimaru joined them as the three genin ran towards the gates and pounded on them, yelling for the guards to let them in.

"Kids, come back," Hiruzen said suddenly and all three students started at his sharp tone. Worry was etched across his face as a guard appeared at the top of the gate.

"Hiruzen, back finally?" the guard said in relief, and Jiraiya noticed he had the pale lavender eyes of the Hyuugas. "I was worried it wasn't you," he explained as he turned around and shouted an order to open the gates.

As they arrived at the village, Jiraiya was surprised at the subdued atmosphere. What was going on?

"What do you mean 'finally'?" Hiruzen asked the Hyuuga as the gates began to close behind them. "We arrived earlier than scheduled."

All three genin were listening intently at the serious conversation. The Hyuuga scratched his head, long ponytail swinging before he answered.

"There's some stuff that you might want to get notified about. Hokage-sama seems pretty worried at this point, but most of it is confidential and I only know a fraction of what he'd tell you. Maybe you should head over as soon as possible – I heard Danzo saying that they were waiting for you, and that the mission would begin as soon as possible."

Hiruzen's face was grim as he nodded before turning to his shocked protégés. "Listen, I have to go now, maybe for a couple of days. You guys keep practicing your chakra control, and try it out on water – still water first, and then moving water. Take a bit of a break though, and don't push yourselves too hard training. You all did well on this mission." With a tight smile, he clasped his hands together to form a hand seal and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"What do you think _that_ was about?" Tsunade whispered as they trudged home.

Jiraiya shrugged, but he was feeling rather unnerved by the whole affair, too. "Adult stuff they won't tell us," he said unhelpfully.

"Do you think sensei will be alright?"

"Yes," chimed Orochimaru, who had taken to speaking more during their conversations. "He's the strongest ninja after the Hokage, isn't he?"

That was an interesting way to put it.

"Is sensei really next in line to become Hokage?" Jiraiya asked Tsunade.

She frowned. "I think so. I heard Father talking about it, and he definitely said sensei was one of the candidates. I think he said the other was Danzo?"

A memory clicked in Jiraiya's mind. "The guy with the weird butt-chin?"

Tsunade tried to suppress a snort of laughter in vain. "He does _not_ have a butt-chin. I'm pretty sure it's a scar … and it's an _x_, not just a line, so unless your butt got separated into four parts …"

"Don't be stupid…"

They split up on their separate ways to go home, and Jiraiya waved to his teammates cheerily. It was then that he realized Orochimaru was going in the direction of the graveyard again, and he felt a pang of pity for his friend.

_Friend?_

Jiraiya scrunched up his face. Well, maybe, he supposed. Orochimaru and Tsunade were his _friends_, and nobody could really deny that after their bonding during this mission. Yes, even Tsunade could be considered his friend.

What a strange world this was.

He reached the nondescript gray-blue building that he called home, and walked up three flights of stairs to his apartment. He sincerely hoped his mother was home, because he hadn't thought to bring the keys on the mission, and he didn't fancy sitting outside (foodless) even for another two minutes.

He rang the doorbell about five times before he heard his mother's hasty steps, and she opened the door looking completely surprised.

Jiraiya's surprise was equal, or perhaps even greater than hers.

"Mom?" he asked dazedly.

This woman before him was wearing a dress – a formal, red dress! – and make-up on her face. Her hair was curled into wavy chestnut ringlets and extravagant earrings – ones he knew his father had given her, and ones that she hadn't worn since he'd died – hung from her earlobes.

"Oh," she uttered breathlessly. "I … I didn't expect you to be back so soon!"

And then came another shock.

A man in a suit came up behind her, every move he made possessive and much too intimate for Jiraiya's liking when it came to his mother. The man looked about ten years older than his mother and a silver-gray colour touched his temples.

Then it hit him.

"Have you forgotten about _Dad?_" he shouted. "Who the hell is this!"

"Watch your language, Jiraiya!" his mother said sharply, glancing around furtively as neighbours began poking nosy heads out. She lowered her voice. "I didn't want to tell you just yet –"

"That you're forgetting about your old life?" He, unlike her, made no effort to lower his voice. "That you're forgetting about _Dad?_"

His mother suddenly looked furious. "Don't you say that, you horrible boy! Do you expect me to grieve for the rest of my life because of something that happened a long time ago?"

Jiraiya could only gape at her. _Something that happened a long time ago?_

Without another word, he turned and fled, ignoring his mother's protests.

As he ran, he ignored the pain in his feet from days of weary travel and the ache of his back that still carried his supplies for the mission. As he ran, he pretended he didn't hear or feel that rumble of his hungry tummy that demanded food. As he ran, he fought back hot, angry tears that threatened to spill over and forced them back into the recesses of his sadness. As he ran, he conjured the image of his father, smiling proudly.

He didn't know where he was going, because all he cared about was getting _away_ from his mother. How could she do that? How could she just throw everything away? Had she forgotten about _him_?

Well, it looked like she had.

He stopped in the middle of a field, realizing it was the training grounds on which they held most of their practices. Fortunately, it was empty, and he sat down heavily on the grass.

He wiped away the little moisture that had gathered at his eyes, not caring that his hands were grimy and dirty from days of accumulated filth.

"Women," he mumbled, not knowing that this would be the first of many similar curses throughout the rest of his life. "Don't try to understand them."

His mother had never brought home other men before, and he'd taken this for granted, thinking that she was faithful even after her husband had died. His father had been a brave man, but he had been quite forgettable. He was a mere chuunin who had fought in one of the many units that Konoha had sent out, a unit that came back with less than one-tenth of the men with which it had set out, and that brave, proud man had just turned into a name that had been read out at a memorial service at the end of the war.

Was his mother doing this because they were short on money? Was that it? The man had looked quite unattractive, and he'd been considerably older than her, so maybe that was it. But they had _enough_, and with the little bit of money Jiraiya was contributing from his missions, it should have been even slightly _more_ than enough. Maybe his mother didn't like this simple lifestyle. Maybe she wanted opulence and extravagant gifts.

He ground his teeth together as he shrugged off his pack, lying down on the ground and staring up at the blithe, blue sky.

If his father had been a decorated war hero, would it have been any different?

Well, he was going to make it so that no woman could forget him. He was going to become a powerful shinobi, and his name would be known throughout all the nations…

He closed his eyes happily.

But how was he going to do that? By training like everyone else? No … he needed a shortcut. Something that would make him surpass everyone else at once…

He bolted upright.

Hadn't Hiruzen said that 'all great shinobi have Summons'? Well, it wasn't going to make him _the_ greatest ninja, but at least it was going to make him _great_! He grinned, considering the title _The Great Jiraiya._

What was it that Hiruzen had said when he'd performed the jutsu? Jiraiya bit the pad of his palm hard enough to draw blood, like he'd seen other shinobi doing, and pressed it to the ground. Ah, yes –

"Fuchiyose no jutsu!"

But nothing happened.

He slumped back, frustrated. Was he really expecting the giant monkey guy to pop out of nowhere? Would it even be the giant monkey? Maybe his Summon would be a lion – he'd been compared to a lion before – or an eagle! That would be _really_ cool!

Right, the hand seals.

What was it?

He searched his mind again, remembering that moment …

_Boar dog bird monkey ram. _

"Fuchiyose no jutsu!" he said again, and this time some strange black markings appeared in a circle radiating out from his thumb, and he looked up with a delighted grin, expecting –

Suddenly, it wasn't the training field anymore, and he was falling through the air and soon collided painfully with the ground.

Groaning in pain as he got up, he realized the ground on which he stood was a brick-red colour, so he certainly wasn't on the training field. Looking up, he was shocked by the green-blue hues everywhere; a furry mat covering distant mountains, the colour of the fan-like leaves on the strange trees surrounding him, and even the water that a stone toad spouted in a fountain to his right. The sky was a surreal azure blue, spotted with soft pink clouds.

Where _was _he?

He heard a commotion to his left, and he ran towards it, which in hindsight, probably wasn't the most intelligent course of action to take.

There was a small clearing, and he saw two enormous animals, a bright blue snake with yellow spots and a red toad with warts on its skin. Both were the size of large buildings.

He gulped. Surreal landscape and giant animals? Did he eat something that was making him hallucinate? Maybe he shouldn't have accepted the candy that old woman had given him on their way back…

With a sudden hiss, the snake lurched forward, venom dripping from its fangs that reached for the toad.

On instinct, Jiraiya rushed forward and grabbed the unsuspecting snake by the tail, using chakra to plant his feet firmly in the ground as he swung the snake in a circle before throwing it as far away as he could. He heard a loud crash and the snapping of flattened trees far off into the forest before he turned to the toad, trembling ever-so-slightly.

The toad had small yellow eyes, and there was a scar down one of its eyes that was prominent as he regarded the boy before him. Jiraiya realized the toad was wearing clothes – _clothes! _– and a sheathed sword was hanging by his side. He gulped again.

"A human child, eh?"

Jiraiya stumbled backwards, shocked. It was _talking!_ Unfortunately, he voiced this out loud quite audibly.

The toad snorted – a strange thing for a toad to do, in Jiraiya's opinion. "A human child that states the obvious … though I'm surprised you got here. Not many humans can get to Mount Myoboku alive!" The toad leered down at him unpleasantly, but Jiraiya didn't react. The toad wasn't showing any outward aggression, so he supposed his life wasn't in immediate danger anymore.

"What is this place?" he demanded.

The toad frowned at him – or at least, Jiraiya supposed it was a frown. It was hard to tell what expressions could be translated from human to toad.

"Well, I don't know how much I'm allowed to tell you, kid, but Ma and Pa probably will, so I'll bring ya to them." The toad began ambling away.

"'Ma and Pa'?" Jiraiya echoed, chuckling as he followed the toad. "You still live with your parents?"

The toad turned to him with a glare – or at least a narrowing of its tiny yellow eyes. "They're the Elder Toads, and everyone calls them that, kid."

"Sorry," Jiraiya said unapologetically. "So what's your name? Should I call you Bro?"

The glare intensified and Jiraiya fought in vain to stifle a snicker. "That's Chief Gamabunta to you, kid!" he yelled, and posed dramatically, whipping out a pipe.

Jiraiya's laughter was full-blown now, but he didn't feel very terrified as the toad began to chuckle as well.

"So who're you, kid?" the toad asked with the pipe between his lips. _Another smoker? _Could he do the same ash thing as Hiruzen-sensei?

"Jiraiya the Great," he said, considering how he could pose and introduce _himself_ in the future, as the toad had done, as they approached a giant waterfall.

"Well, Jiraiya-chan, there's Pa," the toad said, gesturing to a rock at the top of the waterfall.

'Pa' was tiny, green, white-haired – were toads supposed to grow hair, or was that mold from his old age? – and wore a little cloak that covered his entire torso. He couldn't have looked more different from Gamabunta.

"We've been expecting ya, boy," said the old toad in a gravelly voice, but it was precisely at this moment that Jiraiya realized something.

The toad's white hair looked suspiciously like his own … and those markings near Gamabunta's eyes were similar to his…

He groaned out loud in disappointment.

Not lions, not eagles … but _toads_? Seriously?

How uncool.

* * *

**A/N: Hey everyone! Third chapter – woot! A couple of things I want to mention. First of all, I have never had a dango (like Orochimaru!) so please forgive me if I'm wrong about something T_T Also, I am well aware that my version of events differs from what the anime shows (with Jiraiya having liked Tsunade from the start, as well as how the three of them met), but I'm going to stick to ****_this_**** version and things ****_will_**** turn out the same in the end, for the most part. For example, the scene with the toads doesn't differ too much, but I will tell you now that there's going to be a significant time-skip later on, similar to Naruto when he went off with Jiraiya, which isn't exactly how they described it in the anime. Also, just to confirm, Jiraiya's family history is also completely made up, and I thought the little twist with how his relationship with his mother is reflects his attitude later on in life. **

**Anyhow! Please review, follow, and favourite! :)**

**-Jennifer *hugs***


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